This thread is for members to recommend service and technical repair stores which you have been happy with (or maybe not so happy with).

If you would like to recommend a store/shop, please contact any of the mods who in turn will add to this thread.
I have locked the thread because we just want people to give details rather than discussions

[All recommendations (positive or negative) are the opinions of the member who has voiced it and in no way the recommendations of Offsetguitars.com as an organisation, its admin or moderator staff.]

Positive Experience: I had problems with my Hot Rod Deluxe Amp cutting in and out on the overdrive channels. [The amp is out of warranty]
I took it to Syndal Music (who are authorised Fender repair shop) and asked them to check it out and repair the problem, as well as replace the two crappy plastic input jacks with high quality switchcraft jacks.

It was fixed and ready for pickup 6 days later and cost AU$120 (US$100) , which I think is superb as it costs AU$100 just for some of the bigger stores just to open the back of an amp.

Syndal Music is a small guitar/amp/keyboard store, the guys who run it are friendly and there is no pressure ... which is why I like to give this sort of business to them. Would recommend anyone to take their equipment to them for repair.

Positive Experience: Brendan is the owner and main guy at Real Guitars (he was the lead guitarist in the seminal early 70s Aussie band MADDERLAKE) and Brendan knows guitars. (his offsider Ian knows basses)

I take all my guitars and basses to REAL GUITARS for initial set-ups (those that I have built myself), refrets (Brendan refret two of my 66 Jaguars and they feel and look like it was a factory refret with zero damage to the binding) or for any other serious problem that I cannot do myself. Every guitar I have had at Real Guitars has been set up superbly.

I also use Real Guitars to get my bodies/necks painted with Nitrocellulose paint. The best paint/refinishing I have ever seen.

Positive Experience: I had my blonde ’61 Jazzmaster refretted by Steve and he did a fantastic job. Steve recommended a wire size that I ended up loving and repaired some butchering from at least two previous refrets (overly deepened slots, excess glue, chipping around the slots) making it virtually disappear. As a bonus Steve is also an old school surf guy, owns at least one Jazzmaster in his personal collection and seems to have a pretty good grasp of how to properly set them up. That’s one leg up on just about any tech around IMO. He seems to be pretty busy so it can often take more then a week or two to get a guitar in but he makes your appointment so that you drop it off when he’s ready for it and then his turnaround is 1 week. It’s a great system that prevents you leaving your guitar with a tech for weeks because he isn’t prepared to work on it yet. Price was $300. It’s kind of pricey I guess but finding anyone in the LA/OC area to do it for less would be taking a real gamble. I was quoted a minimum of $400 from one place!

Negative Experience: I took the same Jazzmaster mentioned above here after getting a couple recommendations from other guitar players. When I dropped it off with Doc Pitillo I thought he would be doing the work but it turns out Pavel did the actual refret and he did a fucking awful job. The story goes like this…

Call on the phone and ask about prices and talk to him a touch about what I want. Everything seemed cool so I decided to drop it off to have the work done. At that point I re-iterate that I would like a vintage style fret-wire to keep the guitar as close to original spec as possible. He says he has a wire I will like and I leave the guitar with him. When I go to the shop to pick it up I’ve got some really narrow and slightly tall wire on it that isn’t really like vintage Fender wire at all but there’s not much I can do at that point. It seems to be playing better which is nice and so I pay Pavel the $300 and take it home. Within a week I notice around the 15th fret on the high E that I’ve got a dead note. I thought it was odd that I hadn’t noticed it sooner but I don’t tend to play high up on the neck a lot and so thought I must have just missed it. I also found it annoying that Pavel had potentially given it back with this problem but I take it back in and they apologize and he files it down I guess to get everything playable again. After a few more weeks I start noticing more buzzing and that I’ve got some really dull notes in places mostly on low low and high E strings. I start messing around trying to figure out what’s up and it becomes obvious that a few of the frets are becoming un-seated on the ends. Looking along the side of the fretboard I could actually press on them with my finger and watch the fret move up and down. I glued a couple of the worst ones back myself with a touch of superglue but the problem got so bad that the guitar was practically unplayable. The main reason was the poor choice of fretwire. The stuff had almost no tang to speak of. You could easily see that once the fret pulled up slightly there was nothing for it to seat to anymore. To make matters worse, this particular guitar had had the slots deepened at some point and Pavel did absolutely nothing to clean that up and make it look better by filling with some filler. There was excess glue and some chipping around the slots on the fret board (the latter potentially from poor work previously) that was not cleaned up either. All in all, even if the frets had been better and had not come unglued, the work that he did showed little care or attention to detail and IMO I wouldn’t even give him a nickel to wipe my guitar with a rag. It’s a shame I wasted $300 on that mess but I was able to have the whole thing taken care of by Steve Soest as mentioned above and the guitar looks and plays like a million bucks now. So in a way, I guess I can thank guitar doctor for opening my eyes to just how bad a bad tech can be and making me look even harder for one that would actually give a shit and take some pride in their work.

Hi there,
I saw the thread on Repair shop recommendations and I've got a great luthier for all guitars, but especially offsets (since they tend to need special care and experience to set them up properly):

Fred and Dave do an incredible job with setting up, repairing or restoring guitars. They know their offsets and have worked on my Jazzmaster for about four years now. I can't recommend these guys highly enough. They are great guys and are first class Luthiers.

This is my good friend Chris Tatoyian in NH but he also does work for Boston/Cambridge folks. He does the best nutwork & refretting I've seen. He refretted a '59 Jazzmaster neck for me (my black gold guard) and it was perfection! I do my own work but when something is beyond my skill level, I give it to Chris.

He's also great at refretting '70s Fender maple necks without messing up the fretboard lacquer. He perfectly refretted a '74 Tele Deluxe neck for me.

I have used Jimmy/Dave for a good few setups - their work is 100%, always ready to recommend options if you're not totally sure what you want done (but have an idea), quick and friendly (and extremely reasonable in terms of pricing).

Offsets/vintage instruments are also well catered for here. Highly recommended.

Positive Experience: Jack Stetz is the owner. I had him fix my PRS when someone at another shop messed it up. He even did it for free. He knows his stuff.

I took my Jazzmaster to him to get set up, and he did a hell of a job! I could believe how well playing this guitar was after that. Even though his shop is 45 minutes away, and there are other guys around, he's the only guy I will go to for a guitar setup, repair, or troubleshoot.

Positive Experience:
Too many to list. Frank and Dave at Manella are the first people I recommend to friends in the Pittsburgh Area. Rock solid business ethics and a wealth of knowledge. Sometimes it's just great to stop by and show them what guitar I'm working on currently and they'll offer tips and guidance on things they would do to make the instrument play better if it were their own personal guitar. I'll be having them re-fret one of my guitars here shortly, and have had them do multiple repairs to multiple instruments of mine. All the way from a bone-nut replacement or a full blown neck repair to a simple setup, these guys are hands down the best in Pittsburgh.

This is a recommendation for a wonderful little shop and a great place for repairs, setups, or even to buy a handmade guitar or bass, provided that you have the money.

Stringed Instruments Restoration and Making is a very small shop with an old world feel. The owner and sole employee, Sal Giardina is a classical stringed instrument luthier (violin bodies hang in the single window). Walking into the tiny store, you get a really old world feel, with piles of violins and violas on the floor, stand up basses leaned everywhere, bridges and tailpieces stacked up on each other....all in some organized chaos. Jars of self mixed shellac and polish reside on a shelf behind the counter/work bench. The place is awesome and Sal is a genius when it comes to properly setting up an electric instrument, treating everything I've brought in as if it were his own instrument. He asks that you bring in the instrument with a set of new strings, making sure that this is the string/gauge that you normally use, and asks your preferences and style before setting up each instrument. The service can be very slow, but the prices are extremely good for what you get.
Sal always let me know that I should take my guitar home and play it for a week, and if there is anything he missed or something I didn't like, to come back and he would take care of it without charging any extra. He has repaired a broken Les Paul headstock for me, he level/polished my Telecaster, he installed a bone nut/saddle on my classical guitar, and finally I brought in my 1965 Jazzmaster with worn frets and asked for a refret. He told me that he could make the guitar play with no problem WITHOUT a refret, and that if I wanted a refret he would do so without removing the binding, as the old nitrate material is bound to shrink as soon as it is removed. This is the kind of thing you want in a Luthier... someone who knows not only what to do, but even more importantly, what NOT to do. A younger tech might have no experience with nitrate binding and its tendency to shrink and ruin the original binding in the process. I chose not to go with the refret. I had him set up the guitar with flat 13s for jazz work. When I got it back it was amazing. No strings buzzed, despite the LOW 50 year old stock frets and stock jazzmaster bridge. Sal even removed the shim, stating that he prefers if he can set up an instrument without a shim in order to maximize neck/body surface area. He had the original shim in a small bag in my case.

Sorry for the long review, but Sal deserves it. It's worth noting that the service can be EXTREMELY slow at times, and a couple of times I had to stop by and almost remind him that I was waiting for my guitar. He was always apologetic, never rude, always stating that he was swamped...which I believe (tons of local musicians in New Orleans), but I've always been blown away by his amazing work and great prices.

Final comment from Bubbles:
I apologize for so many words, but it's hard to talk about Sal's shop without getting almost emotional about it. Sal is the real deal. Not to many of those exist in these days of Guitar Center mass produced know-nothing "techs".

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I'd like to add a place for the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana, Live Music.

Bob owns Live Music, and it's one of the few extremely competent and knowledgeable places to get almost anything musical repaired, from amps to electronics (including stereo equipment). He's a great guy, and very interesting and knowledgeable person to talk to.

They do great work, usually with a pretty quick turnaround, depending on what they have going on at the time. I've put a good bit of stuff through their shop for repairs or upgrades over the years, and I'm always happy with the results. He's very honest, and will tell you if he doesn't think something is worth fixing (for the cost of repair), but will if it's just something that you really want to do (sentimental value or whatever).

He also has some equipment for sale, is willing to order things for people, and sells and sets up PA systems for places like restaurants that host bands, churches, etc.